Tell us everything will need to know about you.

My name’s Ollie. I was born and raised roughly an hour south of Tokyo, Japan. I’ve been pursuing music as a career for just over a year now. I graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Advertising. I’m very family orientated. I don’t know where a career in music will take me, but I love the journey.

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State your favourite genre of music and your reason.

My favorite genre of music is hip-hop. Some of my earliest memories are when my dad would take me to preschool. The only thing I remember listening to is the Beastie Boys album “License to Ill.” I knew most of the words to all of the songs when I was a kid, and I loved rapping along to them. After taking a few creative writing and poetry classes in high school, I gained an appreciation for wordplay, metaphors, all that good stuff that hip-hop is all about. Plus, there are thousands of sub-genres that are all distinctive. Everyone can find something they like.

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Tell us your experience as a musician.

Honestly I just go to starbucks to write, and a few places to record, and that’s about it. My two favorite aspects of making music are performing live, and interacting with people who comment on my songs. It could be good or bad, I love hearing what people have to say. I’ve performed live a few times, and those experiences are what made me realize I want to do this for life. I turn up on another level. I pulled a muscle and got punched in the mouth the last time I performed live because I went into the crowd and went crazy.

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Tell us the theme of your song.

The theme of ‘Trial & Error’ is idea that I have no clue what works for me yet, but I won’t stop trying until I find out. It could be tomorrow, it could be never. You can’t give up when something doesn’t go your way; you have to work around it. This song storyboards me working around various setbacks to continue doing what I love. I tried to make it as a relatable as possible by not speaking too much on music. Bottom line, you have to follow intuition. My gut tells me this is what I’m supposed to be doing.

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Name the people behind your success and thank them on this platform.

My Mom, Dad, and brother are who I thank most. They’ve taught me the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in life so far. I love them. My family knows how much they mean to me. They get all the thanks in the world for the unconditional love and support they show.

Other than that, my manager was the one who convinced me to take this seriously. Without him, I don’t’ think I would have made the decision to. I’d probably be working at an accounting firm coasting through life. He’s also become a very close friend of mine, so the relationship we have is priceless. Thank you, Marc.

I can’t thank each individual friend, so I’ll cop out and lump all of you guys in here. My close friends are considered family and they definitely know who they are. Thank you guys for supporting me even when my music was awful.

Lastly, I’d have to thank everyone who’s given my songs a chance. Every click, share, like, comment, post; I’d be nothing without the people who listen to me. I hate calling them ‘fans’ because they are way more meaningful than a stream. I consider them friends as well. There aren’t a lot of you yet, but thank you all.

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Tell us about your future goals.

My future goals are pretty outlandish. I’d like to make a living off writing, recording, and performing music. I want to be able to take care of my family and give them the life they deserve for setting me up. I just want to have fun. ‘Having fun’ in a career to me is outlandish because I’ve seen so many of my friends hate their lives due to accepting jobs because they think that’s their only option. When I pull this off, I’ll set some new goals. As of now, that’s the ultimate goal with many smaller numerical goals in between.

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Go into detail about your opinion on religion and politics.

I’m not religious. I have nothing against religion, though. Having gone to high school in the bible belt of the United States, I found the most people who claim to be super religious are actually the biggest hypocrites. They use it more of an excuse opposed to spreading whatever religion is supposed to spread. I just try to be a good person, that’s my religion. When it comes to politics, I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty uneducated. The news is so depressing, I never watch it. I’m definitely not a fan of who’s in office right now, if that’s what you’re asking.

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Elaborate on how you think your music is inspiring your fans.

I just got a DM today from someone saying that Trial & Error inspired them to upload a song they’ve been sitting on for a while. I try to be upfront and transparent, speaking on both the good and the bad. I think people who listen to my meaningful material see the honesty behind it. I don’t think I’m the most inspirational person, but if anyone were to listen to my songs, hopefully they’d take away that anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

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Explain the changes you have observed so far in the music industry.

The music industry is similar to the tech industry; you have to stay educated on the changes to stay remotely relevant. It seems like now it changes every couples months. I enjoy the change. I love seeing who’s the next big thing and why. I don’t listen to many new artists solely because I don’t want to be influenced by them and change my sound. I’m a fan of the change, though, for sure.

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State the artists you cherish most and your reason.

I’m a huge fan of Ed Sheeran because his talent level exceeds almost everyone. Drake is the goat. His discography can’t be touched. Rae Sremmurd is always on repeat wherever I’m at. Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi are two of my favorites because of their energy and how much fun they have in their songs. I saw them open for The Weeknd and it was insane. The Weeknd is also one of my all-time favorite artists. He’s incredible at what he does, simple as that. Over the past year, I’ve been listening to a lot of Russ as well. He has so many songs and cadences that you can’t go wrong putting him on shuffle. He’s one of the hardest working artists I know of, and speaks his mind regardless of the situation. I love that.

On top of all that, Lil B and Waka Flocka are the two artists who made me want to record my own music.

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Give us the links to your social network and stores.

Instagram

Twitter

Soundcloud

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Elaborate on how you develop your lyrics.

It’s a very spur of the moment process. Whatever I’m feeling is whatever I’m going to be writing about. It all boils down to three main topics; Current life situation, past relationships, and lit party music. Sometimes I storyboard songs out, sometimes I don’t. I haven’t really developed a process yet.

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Tell us if you enjoy collaborating with other artists or just singing as a solo artist.

I love collaborating with artists. There’s always a fun level of competition that’s present. Also, I’m a big fan of group projects. Taking two different style and putting them over one instrumental is always fun. I wouldn’t like to collaborate with someone who sounds like me, though. I like collaborations to be two or more different sounds.

I also love working solo, too. I just like making music. I don’t care if it’s by me or with 10 other people. As long as magic is being made, I’m down.

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Brief us your opinion on making music that makes people to dance or making the kind of music with genuine message that inspires them.

HUGE fan of both. I love dancing, or any sorts of music that make you feel yourself. Relatable material is also great. They go hand in hand to me, but I think differently. I can find meaning in a song that makes me want to dance, and I can feel myself to some relatable stuff. I love them both.

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Elaborate on how you develop your melody and instrumentation.

I need to get better at melodies. I’m not the best at them right now. I don’t spend too much time on them, but I’ve recently learned they’re probably the most important part of a song. Not too much to elaborate on, I just need to get better at them. Right now I kind of just hum along and see what I think would sound good. Only recently have I been involved in the instrumentation process. I’ve been in the studio with some of the producers who I’ve worked with, and have made suggestions, but nothing crazy.

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Go into detail on the recording process of this song.

Where most people have to get warmed up, I come in scorching hot and have to cool down. I always get really excited and come in too hot. The process is nothing crazy, though. Mix a little experimentation with some numerous takes, and you’ve got yourself a song. I usually drink tea or miller lite whenever I record. Sometimes both.

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Discuss your music performance.

My music performance is kind of hard to describe because more often than not, I black out from excitement and don’t remember much. It’s high energy, lots of crowd interaction, and minimal back tracking. I go all out. I don’t have an agenda, I don’t know what I’m going to do at a certain point in a song, and I just wing it all. I feed off whoever’s in the crowds’ energy. If I can get them going crazy, then they get me going wild and we all have a good time.

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Tell us how you will rate yourself as an artist.

10/11, easily. I’m my number one fan. If I don’t believe in me, who else will? I rated out of 11 because there’s always room for improvement. There is so much that goes into rating an artist. Metaphors, wordplay, song structure, versatility, overall song quality, a plethora of factors. In my opinion, I’m good at all of them. Maybe I need someone to try and prove me wrong.